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We are making the �impossible possible, through education.
Room to Read supports children in communities experiencing deep educational, gender and economic inequities, where investments in education accelerate positive change.
Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children,®
we envision a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality, where all children have room to read, learn and grow — creating lasting change. Our contextualized approach develops children’s literacy and life skills in a dignified and gender-equal way.
Room to Read has benefited 52 million children across 29 countries with literacy and life skills that promote gender equality.
52MM
children across 29 countries benefited
since 2000.
44.5MM
books distributed, including more than 5,058 original and adapted children’s titles published by Room to Read in 57 local languages.
47MM
million children supported through our literacy programming
4.1MM
girls supported through our gender equality programming
Our results
17MM
children actively benefited in 2025
Quality education is an inherent human right. And yet more than 773 million people cannot read; two-thirds of these individuals are women and girls.
Among 10-year-olds living in low and middle-income countries, seven out of 10 cannot read and understand a simple text and are considered to be living in learning poverty.
Approximately 251 million of the world’s children and youth are not in school.
Without action, current education systems will continue to deny the fundamental right to quality education for millions of children for decades to come.
Our Literacy Portfolio develops children’s literacy skills and nurtures a love of reading.
Our Gender Equality Portfolio supports all adolescents, particularly girls, to develop life skills that promote gender equality.
Our Literacy Portfolio supports children as they develop literacy skills with a love
of reading.
Our Literacy Program is a core part of this portfolio, through which we
We combine the science of learning to read with the magic of loving to read to sustain children’s reading skills development.
Learning how to read and write
Globally, over the last five years, Grade 2 children in Room to Read schools read on average more than twice as many correct words per minute and correctly answer twice as many comprehension questions, compared to students in comparison schools.
Few organizations can demonstrate this level of improvement, especially among diverse communities around the world.
Building a love for reading
We offer the only global program with a focus on inspiring children to become life-long readers — through regular reading, a child continually practices and improves their reading skills, while gaining opportunities to learn about a range of topics, including climate change, peace and equality, and different cultures.
In 2023, children in Room to Read programs checked out an average of 13.7 books per student across all grades.
Our Gender Equality Portfolio helps all adolescents, particularly girls, develop life skills that promote gender equality.
Within this portfolio, our Girls’ Education Program supports adolescent girls through
Changing gender perceptions
How do we know we’re changing adolescents' perceptions of gender? We look at the data.
Let’s take the findings from our Life Skills for Equality Project in Cambodia as an example. After the first two years of the pilot project, which benefits girls and boys, our endline evaluations — both quantitative and qualitative — confirmed that life skills education is essential in shaping how adolescents think about their futures, their relationships and their views on gender norms.
Here is just a snippet of what we’ve learned:
Girls expressed greater confidence in speaking up, approaching teachers with questions and leading peer discussions.
Girls reported an increase in their ideal marriage age to 25.57 years, and boys to 26.05 years, marking a change from baseline data, where girls reported the ideal age to marry was 24.6 and boys reported 24.7.
Boys highlighted improvements in anger management, with many noting the use of communication, rather than aggression, to solve problems.
Both boys and girls shared that they had learned to support one another — a crucial step toward breaking cycles of inequality.
Why ?
When you support Room to Read, you are:
Helping communities around the world that experience deep educational, gender and economic inequities, where the need is most urgent. | Bolstering strong partnerships with governments, NGOs, book publishers and others to accelerate learning outcomes and create long-term systemic change. | Addressing both access to and quality of education. | Backing programming that can be adapted for any community or context to help all children develop strong reading skills and habits. | Ensuring all adolescents, particularly girls, cultivate life skills that promote gender equality, helping them navigate economic and social barriers to education. |
Invest with confidence
For every US$1 donated to Room to Read, 85 cents goes to our programs. We are proud to have earned 18 four-star ratings from Charity Navigator. �
By the end of 2025, we have invested more than US$1 billion into improving foundational learning for children across the world.
Give Monthly
Help us benefit more children, more quickly.
New monthly donations will be MATCHED for the first 12 months �by Room to Read's regional board members.
How your monthly donation will transform lives:
$10/month Provides 10 high-quality, local language books each month
$25/month Supports 6 students in our Literacy Program each month
$30/month
Keeps a girl in school each month with ongoing support in our Girls' Education Program
Start a fundraiser.
It all starts with an idea. Our supporters have dedicated birthdays and weddings, climbed mountains, sold lemonade and more, all in the name of education.
Volunteer.
Join a worldwide network of passionate people working together to eradicate global illiteracy and gender inequality in education, right from your own community.
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A world of educated children
starts with you.